We analyze the Fractal Epoch PC case against some of the best computer cases on the market.

The Highlights

• Fractal's Epoch computer case builds upon the Fractal North chassis, but swaps the front panel to accommodate larger GPUs while driving the price down
• At its price range, we’d buy something else
• The Epoch aims to be more price competitive than Fractal's other modern offerings, helping breathe life into the price category that the Pop Air has occupied
• Original MSRP: $110 MSRP ($130 for RGB)
• Release Date: September 2025

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

The Fractal Epoch is the Fractal North (watch our review) with a new front panel and a lower price. That makes this simple, except for one massive problem: The name. According to Google, this is pronounced the Epic. According to the Cambridge dictionary, it’s either the E-poch, eh-pock, or epic.

Editor's note: This was originally published on September 2, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing, Writing

Patrick Lathan

Camera, Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Camera

Tim Phetdara

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Fractal's newest case reuses a ton of tooling from the popular North in order to keep costs low, resulting in a $110 MSRP ($130 for RGB). The Epoch's front panel increases GPU clearance without making the case any larger than the compact North it's based on. The new design also comes with 3 stock fans versus the North's 2, so we'll cover the differences in thermal performance in detail, as well as noise testing.

The North itself originally launched at $130, then went to $140, and is now $154. This is almost definitely due to tariffs. With the Meshify 3 (read our review) going for $155 minimum as well, the Epoch fills a budget slot in Fractal's lineup that hasn't really been updated since the Pop Air (watch our review) and Focus 2 came out in 2022.

Today then, we’re reviewing and benchmarking the Fractal Epoch for thermals and acoustics.

Specs copied from manufacturer materials, please read review for our own measurements and opinions

The Build

The build experience in the Epoch is largely the same as it is in the North, but we'll recap some details here. We like the North overall, but at launch, we stated that the North felt like it should be $20-$40 cheaper if it weren't for the wood in the front panel. We also said the wood elevated the case and (arguably) made it worth the price. 

The Epoch lacks wood and it's $20-40 cheaper than the North is currently, so that lines up with the earlier statements. The only challenge is that it’s $30-$40 cheaper than the North’s new price, which is higher.

The Epoch (like the North) is fairly basic. Removing the two-part side panel and the sliding mesh top panel gives good access to the case interior, but there's a clear divide between the Epoch and something like the more expensive Meshify 3, which has fully removable top and front mounts that completely open up the case.

The North's shallow form factor means that GPU clearance is limited to 355mm, which would mash the end of the GPU directly against the front fan mounts. The front of the Epoch has been reworked to push the front fans further into the front panel, hence the listed 372mm GPU clearance. Updating this for the Epoch was worthwhile, although it seems more likely that people are going to try to fit big, expensive GPUs into the North or North XL rather than the plainer Epoch. 

The redesign also means that the new case has more clearance for fans and radiators between the PSU shroud and the fan bracket, up from 36mm to 58mm by our measurements, and there's less material overhanging the front drive bracket. The only downside we noticed with the front panel redesign is that fan cables need to be managed more carefully to avoid getting in the way.

The new design is simpler, with the metal mesh at the front of the Epoch acting as a filter rather than the removable filter in the North. We’ve found that this is better thermally (and in the past, we’ve found in testing that noise-normalized, it’s also superior). You’ll just wipe the front panel down instead.

Our main complaints with the North boiled down to cable management, which was lacking compared to competitors even at the time. That’s because the deeper channel at the front of the case is 3cm deep at most, which can lead to the side panel bulging with poor cable management and a lot of cables, especially since the side panel doesn't hook into the case along that edge. 

It's not an insurmountable problem, which is good, because the Fractal Epoch is exactly the same in that regard. 

The cutout for CPU power connectors is also a little on the small side, and the interior of the PSU shroud can get crowded if both drive trays are used. These space issues are a little more forgivable in the North because the North XL exists as an alternative, but we aren't aware of plans for an Epoch XL.

A couple of features from the North have been removed, presumably to cut costs. There's currently no mesh side panel option for the Epoch, which also means that there's no side fan bracket (and no mounting holes to install one). There's also no built-in fan hub, but Fractal has handled this by daisy-chaining fans in both case variants.

As we saw in the Meshify 3, Fractal uses Type-C shaped connectors (NOT actual USB) for its RGB Momentum fans, but the RGB Epoch uses an adapter that splits out into standard fan and RGB connections.

Otherwise, the differences are neutral cosmetic details. 

The front I/O has been rearranged, the illuminated strip from the North is gone, and the two audio jacks have been combined into one. The USB ports are of the same type and quantity, but the Type-C port is now connected with a flat ribbon cable. The case feet have been redesigned without metal accents (the Epoch's might still be more expensive since each is a unique shape), and the faux-leather pull tab at the back of the case has been replaced with fabric. The captive screw on the half-panel at the front of the case still gets wedged, just like the North, but at this point, we've had to make peace with that.

Fractal Design Epoch Thermals

For thermal testing, we ran one set of tests with the stock non-RGB case, then moved the RGB fans into that same case and ran another set of tests to ensure every other variable remained exactly the same.

Of the cases we've tested lately, the direct comparisons for the Epoch are the Corsair Frame 4000D RS, Phanteks XT Pro Ultra, the Lian Li Lancool 207 (or arguably the 217), and of course Fractal's own North. These are all fairly compact ATX towers in the $90-$110 range, with the Epoch landing at the upper end of that and the North being the highest of all of them. 

The non-RGB Epoch will be our main point of comparison since the RGB version costs $130 and could have slightly worse thermal performance. According to the spec sheet, just like with the Meshify 3, the non-RGB fans can generate more noise and move more air at peak speed. Now we have an opportunity to actually test for differences, although they should be minor, and the rated RPM is 2200 for both models.

CPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-Normalized

We'll start with our noise-normalized test, where we adjust the speed of the stock case fans to hit an overall SPL of 27 dBA as measured in our hemi-anechoic chamber. We built this chamber to allow more accurate testing and normalization by eliminating external noises that may affect day-to-day noise floor.

With a full-system torture workload, CPU temperature in the Epoch was 43 degrees Celsius above ambient for the all-core average and 47 degrees on the P-cores, and the temperatures with RGB fans were within one degree for both measurements for the 2 cases. Fractal's claim is that the non-RGB fans are a little louder and higher CFM, which could mean that our noise normalization reverses or equalizes for performance differences.

The Epoch outperformed the original North, which came with two 140mm fans and averaged 46 degrees above ambient all-core and 50 degrees P-core. The glass-sided North is more similar to the Epoch, but the mesh option is an advantage for the case, lowering the all-core average to 44 degrees above ambient and 48 degrees over ambient P-core. 

The Phanteks XT Pro Ultra was even warmer than the glass North, which means the Epoch is also better than the XT Pro Ultra. The Corsair Frame 4000D RS was within error of the Epoch and functionally the same, which makes sense given the similar layout and fan arrangement. The most serious competition comes from Lian Li's dirt-cheap Lancool 207 (read our review) with its 41 degree average, as well as the more expensive 217 (read our review), also at 41. These cases are at about 45 degrees for the P cores.

GPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-Normalized

Moving to GPU thermals in the same test, the Epoch RGB averaged 45 degrees above ambient and the regular Epoch averaged 46. Memory temperatures showed a slightly wider delta, with the Epoch RGB at 49 and Epoch at 51. The regular Epoch was louder at max speed, so it required a greater fan speed reduction to hit our noise-normalized threshold, which explains the temperature difference in combination with a +/-1 degree range.

The regular Epoch outperformed the glass North's 48-degree average and tied the mesh North at 46. The Phanteks XT Pro Ultra came closer to the Epoch here than it did for CPU thermals, although the memory temperature was a weak point for the Phanteks case at 54 degrees over ambient. 

The Frame 4000D did well with a 45 degree GPU average, while the Lian Li cases again are ahead, with the 207 and 217 "GPU Mode" showing similar performance at 42 degrees above ambient on the GPU. Credit to Fractal for still having the best GPU thermal performer with the Torrent (read our review) though, tying the Flux Pro (read our review). These are much more expensive cases. 

GPU Full Load Thermals - Full Speed

We’re switching to full speed tests now, which means we allow noise to become a variable. The noise level is next to the case name.

At full speed, the non-RGB and RGB cases didn't show much of a difference in thermal performance, but they did in noise. The stock Epoch with non-RGB fans measured 42.2 dBA, while the RGB case measured 39.3 dBA. That lines up with Fractal's claims, which have a regular Momentum 12 at 31.3 dBA and a Momentum 12 RGB at 28.03 dBA in their testing. These hard numbers are different because they are tested in different environments and methods -- we’re measuring total system noise, not just the fans.

The average GPU temperature with the RGB fans in the Epoch was technically lower at 43.6 degrees average, but not enough to be outside the margin for error, and the average GPU memory temperatures were nearly identical between RGB and non-RGB.

The North with its stock fans almost kept up, with the mesh-sided result only one degree warmer and the glass-sided result at 46 degrees above ambient, although noise levels were higher than the Epoch. Each of the other competitor cases we mentioned performed better, though, starting with the XT Pro Ultra at 43 degrees, then the Frame 4000D at 42, the Lancool 217 at 39-40 in an ideal configuration, and finally the Lancool 207 at 38 degrees above ambient and roughly the same noise level as the Epoch.

Noise levels have the Epoch about the same as the Antec Flux Pro when at max fan speed, with the Flux Pro running far cooler with its superior fans. The Flux Pro is also $165 to $180, depending on promos, so it’s not the same price class.

GPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized Fans

Using our standardized set of two 140mm intake fans and one 120mm exhaust allows us to make a true head-to-head comparison between the North and Epoch front panels, without stock fans as a variable. 

In terms of GPU thermals, the Epoch, the mesh-sided North, and the glass-sided North all averaged the same: 46 degrees above ambient. The Epoch's front panel may be cheaper, but it's not worse for thermals.

CPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized Fans

CPU thermals between the two North variants in the standardized fan test were also very similar, but the Epoch was about one degree cooler, averaging 38 degrees above ambient all-core and 42 on the P-Cores alone. The new front panel seems to be slightly more open, but any further performance advantages for the Epoch are down to its stock fans.

VRM & RAM Full Load Thermals - Noise-Normalized

Back to the noise normalized test, the Epoch RGB's VRM temperature averaged 29 degrees above ambient and the regular Epoch averaged 30. That's better than either North variant, but 217 remains top of the chart at 26 degrees.

Fractal Design Epoch Conclusion

The Epoch is entering a market where every dollar counts. This is a harder market to compete in than the $150-$180 range.

We think $110 is at the upper limit of what Fractal can realistically ask for this model. It's a North without the wood, and while the trendsetting wood accents will keep the North selling even at $140+, a North without the wood is a reliable but unexciting compact mid-tower, even if the performance is a little better and there's a little more GPU clearance.

Fractal has steep competition from Corsair, Phanteks, and Lian Li, among others.

Corsair's Frame 4000D RS (the one with three stock fans) is basically the same thing as the Epoch, and as of this writing, it's on sale for $95. We weren't terribly impressed with the Phanteks XT Pro Ultra's thermal performance, but it's currently even cheaper at $80 after a rebate on Newegg. The most ruthless competition is from Lian Li, as usual, with its cutthroat prices. It's selling its wood-trimmed Lancool 217 for as little as $120, but a more direct comparison for the Epoch is the $82 compact Lancool 207, and even the 207 Digital with an integrated LCD is on sale for $105. 
It’s good that Fractal is updating its budget offerings because it hasn’t had a refresh here in a couple years, but there's not a particularly strong reason other than brand loyalty to choose the Epoch over its cheaper competition. The North is a good case, but it’s primarily good because of the front panel and the optional mesh side panel. The Epoch is the North without either of those, leaving it as simply “fine.” It’s OK. But competing in the lower price classes, we’d buy something else.

The revised version of TRYX’s LUCA L70 still has issues of varying kinds, but the case has at least improved and the company has made several changes that have resolved some nagging issues.

The Highlights

• TRYX has remade parts of its LUCA L70 case in response to one of our most critical case reviews in a few years
• We appreciate TRYX's response and some of its changes; however, unfortunately, the case again arrived with out-of-the-box issues that are primarily a result of design and not shipping
• Ultimately, this case is still not competitive against other cases that are cheaper than its (now) $250 price, up from $240, but in the very least, some of the issues have been resolved
• Original MSRP: $250

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

Tryx canceled the release of its $240 LUCA L70 case after our original review in order to rework the case to try and prevent things like the side panel coming off if you tilt the case on its side.

We tried it again with the company’s revised case and it didn’t come loose and fall out this time. That’s a good start for TRYX.
About a year ago, we published our critical review of the TRYX LUCA L70 with a lot of concerns about build quality and quality control.

Editor's note: This was originally published on July 2, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing, Writing

Patrick Lathan

Camera, Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Camera

Tim Phetdara

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

In response to our review, the company sent us a gigantic PDF detailing everything they’d changed in response to the review. This is a great approach to handling it and we want to make sure they are acknowledged for taking the time to pause the launch and then try to address things. They still, of course, have to deliver on those changes and actually fix it, but the fact that TRYX was willing to entertain this at all is better than most other companies in the space. So, credit to them for that.  

Unfortunately though, the unit they shipped for re-evaluation came with screws that had been knocked loose, a bent hinge, and other problems -- but we’ll walk through each of these documented changes today.

Tryx’s L70 was an unusual new case from a company that was (at the time) brand-new and it used to be mostly known for its Panorama cooler (check out our coverage of it). 

Well, it still is mostly known for its Panorama cooler, but it used to be, too. 

Tryx’s cooler has recently been copied by companies like ASUS and Thermalright at Computex 2025, with ASUS being particularly personal since some of Tryx’s team came from ASUS. 

More recently, Tryx showed off its Flova case with the possibility of adding a crossflow fan to ATX, which was interesting on its own. But the point is that TRYX is interesting enough to its competitors that some of them are starting to copy it. 

But, again, the L70 was a really bad start.

To the company's credit, TRYX responded to our criticism by halting production while it implemented fixes, which is rare. Fractal pulled a similar move with the Meshify 3 (read our review) ahead of launch, where reviewer complaints about PCIe slot tightness triggered a pause. 

In fact, Fractal even recalled a prior case right when right at launch to rectify a fire hazard from a poor PCB design.

Today, we’re evaluating the L70’s changes. The thermals don’t change and the review basics don’t change from last time, so we won’t re-do all of that. We’ll focus on just the modifications that Tryx made, making this a much simpler revisit.

We’ll start with the fasteners and panel adjustment issues.

Last time, we started by showing shipping damage that led to a cascade of failures with the top panel sagging, fasteners misaligning, the side panel coming loose, and then finally the side panel falling off and tearing out chunks of the case. These issues stem from design problems. 

We want to be clear about one thing, though: Tryx has repeatedly reframed our complaints as shipping damage in communications with them at events like Computex, but the majority of our complaints were about design, quality of life features, and quality control at the factory, not shipping. Shipping was just one part of what was otherwise a mess of a case.

And even when it comes to shipping, the damage itself wasn't the main problem: the fact that the case was vulnerable to damage was one item on a laundry list of other quality-of-life complaints, none of which were acceptable in a $240 case. Due to everything that's happened since September 2024, that MSRP has (understandably) increased to $250.

TRYX stayed in contact over the months and provided us with a list of proposed changes, then a final overview of the actual production changes. Things like the side panel attachment, drive brackets, cable lengths, grommets, and even the typo on the handle are part of a long list of changes. 

But some things have remained the same, like a bent hinge in the new sample. 

We're going to go into minute detail here regarding things that are different from the original sample: if you want more general information about the case and thermal performance, watch our original review. This is going to be a highly specific follow-up.

Accepted Changes

Starting with the accepted changes:

Tryx says that items like the massive gouges in the aluminum feet, bent support for the SSD mounting bracket, deformed fan rails, damaged front I/O and power button area, and bent motherboard tray have been addressed with "increased EPE material density to improve protection during shipping." We think that's probably true, but we don't have the original foam on hand to compare, and the before-and-after pictures in TRYX's document are the same photograph but mirrored. We’re not sure why they did that. TRYX originally indicated that it intended to add extra warnings about fragility to the external packaging, but this wasn't included in the final change list.

Our new review sample arrived mostly unscathed, with one exception:

There was a severely bent lower hingepin on the front panel; however, we again believe this is a factory defect, not shipping damage. 

When the panel is opened, the pin pops out. This is a sample that TRYX sent directly to us, not an undercover purchase, so our confidence in their quality control is non-existent. That’s twice now. 

We also found that one of the motherboard standoffs came loose during shipping and was stuck to a magnet elsewhere in the case, although every other standoff remained tight.

First of all, it’s the company’s responsibility to get a product to an end user without damage. This is twice now that this case has arrived with issues, indicating to us a combination of QC issues and shipping issues. Secondly, it is easy to hide behind “shipping damage” and throw carriers under the bus as a universally hated boogie man, but this is twice now that this has happened, and again, evidence points toward factory QC issues. Even on the shipping side, if a product is fragile, it is up to the manufacturer to figure out how to pack it. 

Tryx reworked the side panel to try and deal with some of this. There are some positives in this panel rework.

TRYX has limited control over shipping damage; the bigger problem in our original review was that an impact on the corner of the case was able to seriously damage its function. Specifically, the glass side panel was knocked out of alignment with the snaps on the case on the original, allowing it to flop out on the table and tear off chunks of metal in the process. 

The major change here is "positioning rivets on the glass panels for transportation, preventing chassis deformation." 

These rivets support the top panel when the side panels are installed and should keep the snaps correctly aligned, which is a solid improvement from TRYX that we’re happy to see. 

The top panel itself doesn't appear to have been reinforced, unfortunately, but the rivets should be adequate as long as the glass panels are installed.

In addition, TRYX says it "removed the hovering function on glass side panel," meaning that the panel doesn't hang open on studs (the parts that tore off). This seems like a wise tradeoff to us; the hovering function isn't important enough to risk permanent damage.

A screw has also been added to the glass side panel to secure it during shipping, as well as a sticker warning about the presence of the screw. The screw is useful for carrying the case around or shipping it. This is a good improvement. We’ve maintained that glass panels should be securable with screws if only for transit, so we’re happy to see this. Even still, with the addition of the rivets, we're comfortable removing the screw for daily use now.

But like the damaged hinge, not every change actually addressed the problems.

In the original L70, the motherboard tray and PSU cage were fastened in with thumbscrews AND little flush-head screws that required a driver, defeating the purpose of using the marketed toolless thumbscrews since tools were required. 

TRYX made a partial change here: it explained that "flush screws are included for transport reinforcement and can be removed once the build is complete," 

Which is fine, but doesn’t change the fact that it’s not tool-less, but OK, and its fix was to use larger still-not-tool-less screws despite being marketed as tool-less removal "to avoid being inconspicuous, preventing users from overlooking them during use." 

We don't consider all of these screws optional, and we don't think they were inconspicuous, so this isn't a real change from our perspective.

One of our other original complaints had to do with I/O cables that weren’t long enough to be easily routed around the SSD bracket.

The updated L70 has a 750mm USB Type-C cable, which translates to about 10cm of additional usable length. Lengths for the other cables remain unchanged, but with our specific test bench hardware, all the cables are now able to reach. The 10cm extension fixes the issue.

The metal strip that extended the motherboard tray in the original L70 would block cable cutouts at either the top or the bottom of the motherboard depending on the case configuration. This was another major design oversight that had nothing to do with shipping.

In the updated model, the strip has been cut away so that audio, front panel, and fan connectors can fit around it at the bottom of the case. EPS12V cables have more room at the top of the case as well, although it's still a tight fit. But, these were good changes to something that was just a design problem.

Another issue we found on the original was that SATA cables could catch on the edge of drive brackets. 

It was as if no one had installed a 2.5” drive to test functionality in the original. Now, the mounting holes on the main drive bracket have been moved. This change fully fixes that issue.

The power button was another problem in the original, mostly because it had a sort of gross, squishy compression that felt like a design issue.

TRYX, at first, defended the power button design as an "anti-false touch function" to "avoid accidental presses due to its edge location," which was a response to our complaint about just how awful the button felt. But they decided to change it anyway, and it's now been updated to work the way it looks like it's supposed to. The PCB is still marked as revision 1.0, so the only material change appears to be the removal of a small shim behind the button. We prefer the new version and think it’s improved.

Cable grommets were also problematic on the original, mostly because they were easily ripped out during cable management.

The cable grommets have been molded from a stiffer material, likely a different durometer, and have been reshaped so that they're less likely to get dragged out by cables. This is a really subtle change, but it seems to have fixed that issue. We’re satisfied with the fix.

We have mixed feelings about the changes made to the captive screws throughout the case. 

Most (but not all) of the screws have been replaced with a new design with more thread, which TRYX says is "for more intuitive alignment, reducing misalignment and ensuring a smoother, faster installation." At the same time, a metal tab was added to the PSU enclosure "for enhanced PSU chamber stability and an easier PSU shroud installation," but none of these are things we mentioned or had difficulty with. They don’t fix the problems with the captive screw situation.

The misused captive screw that has to be un-captiv-ated to move the PSU shroud is still present, and the motherboard tray is unchanged despite TRYX's original intention to remove the embossing that can lead to the screws threading into both mating surfaces at the same time. They showed intent to fix it, then didn’t, and so we still end up with misused and mismatched captive and non-captive screws and screws that sometimes thread into multiple mating surfaces that just demonstrate issues with basics. 

Finally, the easiest thing to fix: The typo.

We talked last time about how companies really struggle with the word “unknown,” including Intel with Gunnir -- twice -- with its “Into the Unkonw” video card. 

Tryx also did, as it had the "discovered an unknow" typo on the handle. This has been fixed by redacting an additional letter. That was extremely low on our list of complaints, but since TRYX had to rebuild every case anyway, it made sense to take care of it.

Additional Changes

There were a couple of changes made by TRYX that weren't directly related to our review, which is a good sign. The ones reported by TRYX were that small transparent protectors were added to the bottom corners of the glass side panel.

These are a nice touch that we appreciate. They also added eight HDD screws to the accessory kit (none were included previously) and they drilled four additional holes in the main drive bracket to improve HDD mounting compatibility.

Rejected Changes

Finally, there were some changes that TRYX opted not to make. It defended its choices.

First off, the lack of fan screws: "Since no fan is pre-installed, we assume users will use screws that come with their own fans." 

Next, the crowded bottom of the case layering a fan bracket, the steel mesh of the chassis itself with its own built-in fan mounts, a filter, and then the aluminum base that obstruct flow: "This is a modular design case, and we considered scenarios where users might swap the PSU positions to try different configurations. In such cases, the additional fan tray becomes useful. Users don’t need to unscrew fans or radiators—they can simply unscrew the captive screws and relocate the tray onto the top plate. In addition, this fan bracket allows easy installation of fans or radiators outside the chassis and can be offset to avoid interference with motherboard connectors [...] The detachable bracket allows users to remove it for enhanced airflow when necessary."

Sure, and we don't disagree with any of that -- but we'd still prefer a less cluttered design with better airflow. You can certainly choose to obstruct airflow however you want, and plenty of cases do that.

Regarding the aluminum side panel and base: "This is part of the LUCA L70’s ID design. Thermal performance is important for this case, but we also want to ensure its aesthetics appeal to its target audience. While there may be some trade-offs in terms of thermal performance, we believe the impact is within the tolerance range. The aluminum base reinforces chassis strength and serves an aesthetic purpose. It was modified with additional cutouts after Computex 2024 for increased air intake. Internal testing showed that removing the base results in a 1°C difference in temperature, so the impact to performance may be negligible to most users."

We also saw approximately the same 1°C difference, but our interpretation was that the bottom vent is restricted even without the aluminum base. Otherwise, this statement basically aligns with what we said in our review. This version of the L70 is sold based on how it looks more than how it performs, and we'll hold the mesh-fronted version of the case to a higher thermal standard. 

TRYX also stated that “The center base piece is detachable, allowing users to remove it when additional cooling is needed.” This is technically true but not worth considering.

The cable cover/SSD mount towards the front of the case doesn't fit drives well in any configuration. This was something else we had complained about. TRYX made no changes here, but stated that "in most scenarios, we recommend using the bracket behind the motherboard tray to mount SSDs, while the bracket to the left primarily serves as a cable cover."

With our original sample, the bracket that fastened the PSU to the case was an extremely tight fit, the PSU itself was a tight fit, and 190mm PSUs (the max compatibility claimed) wouldn't have enough room to comfortably fit cables and would block the cable cutout on the top of the shroud. No changes were made here. 

TRYX noted that the enclosure size was chosen to increase fan and radiator compatibility.

Conclusion

We appreciate that TRYX directly addressed nearly every criticism that we made and attempted to fix several of them. 

The simple addition of the studs to the glass panels adds significant structural stability, and smaller quality of life changes like the power button, the rearrangement of SSD mounting holes, reshaping the motherboard tray extension, and lengthening the USB Type-C cable are all upgrades. 

That said, these are patches to an existing design and they don't fundamentally alter the case, which still doesn't compete strongly at its price in terms of ease-of-use or thermals. $250 is more expensive than the HAVN HS420 (which we like), and it's on par with the similarly-styled ASUS ROG Strix Helios (which we hated, but is built to a higher standard and comes with fans) and the extremely expensive Fractal Meshify 3 Pro Ambience RGB. 

We think there are a lot of way better cases at or under $250, but if you really like how the LUCA L70 looks, then this is a big improvement over what we saw last year. The company is at least listening.

We review the Lian Li Lancool 217 and benchmark its thermal performance in CPU and GPU tests and evaluate acoustics and noise levels

The Highlights

• Lancool 217 comes with 5 fans and uses weirdly sized fans at 2x 170mm for front intake
• Though it includes some logical changes, the Lancool 217 isn't leaps and bounds ahead of the Lancool 216
• The case comes with a more complex implementation of wood that requires tighter manufacturing tolerances but our sample looked good
• Original MSRP: $120 (black), $125 (white)
• Release Date: May 2, 2025

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

Today we’re reviewing the Lian Li Lancool 217. It's a $120-$125 case and uses weirdly sized fans at 2x 170mm for front intake. Internally, the case comes with 3 more fans. And they're interesting because they are 11-blade ones. The case also comes with wood paneling on the sides, and a lot of mesh ventilation on the front of the case. The lower quarter-panel of the left side also uses mesh to feed intake to the GPU directly via shroud-top holes.

Editor's note: This was originally published on June 14, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing, Writing

Patrick Lathan

Editing

Mike Gaglione

Camera, Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets
Tim Phetdara

Camera

Tannen Williams

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

The Lancool 217 ships with five fans: two 170mm front intake, two 120mm shroud-top intake with reversed blades, and one acts as rear exhaust. The shroud-top fans can be moved down to the inside surface of the shroud, which reduces space available for drives, cables, and the PSU, but clears the way for a vertical GPU mount. There's a third fan mount on the shroud that's blocked off by the PSU; its only purpose seems to be compatibility with 3x120 UNI fan kits.

Four of the five case fans are mounted tool-lessly, and the front fans in particular can be rearranged into "CPU Mode" or "GPU Mode" with plastic spacers in between. 

Lian Li also included a full set of longer screws to make the tool-less mounting system work specifically with the 28mm-thick UNI fans.

Lian Li's Lancool 215 launched five years ago. It was groundbreaking at the time due to the two 200mm intake fans, generally only found on large, expensive cases, but with a brutally low MSRP of $70 achieved by contracting out case production and that put a lot of pressure on the industry. 

The $120-$125 price for the 217 isn't as unbelievably low as the 215's was, but Lian Li has preserved several features of the 21X series. 

The case also has a 90-degree rotated PSU mount and an elaborate vertical GPU mount that's compatible with shroud-top fans for once, although it requires a separately-purchased riser cable to use.

Lian Li Lancool 217 Overview

Lian Li says that the self-described "Contemporary Wood Accent" requires particularly tight manufacturing tolerances. Other cases like the Fractal North (read our review) opt for isolated strips that don't need to perfectly line up, but the wood elements in our 217 all sit flush with each other, and the front mesh actually seats into the wood at the bottom. On our sample, it ends up looking pretty good with no big gaps. 

We usually only see wood used as decoration, and we've seen the risks of using it as a functional element with the cracked panel on our Fractal Era 2 (read our review). 

The arrangement of the trim reminds us of the Antec Flux and Flux Pro (read our review) cases, which Lian Li may be targeting with the release of the 217.

Lian Li Lancool 217 Specs

*Specs copied from manufacturer materials, please read review for our own measurements and opinions

The Build

Let's start with "CPU Mode" and "GPU Mode." This is something Lian Li has done in the past but have changed their execution this time. The two front 170mm fans are attached tool-lessly by screwing rubber washers onto the fans and then sliding them into place, a common method for installing storage drives. Between these fans, two plastic blanks can be inserted like old-school 5.25" covers. The blanks also help to guide flow and prevent re-circulation. 

The case ships in GPU mode, meaning (from top to bottom) spacer/fan/spacer/fan with a bias towards airflow lower in the case. 

It can be reconfigured to CPU mode, meaning fan/fan/spacer/spacer with the fans higher up. This is similar in spirit to the "air cooling mode" and "water cooling mode" configurations of the Lancool 216 (watch our review), but more streamlined, practical, and a lot easier to use.

Alternatively, normal fan rails can be installed at the front with 120mm or 140mm spacing, but that would be a waste since the 170mm fans can't be relocated to any other part of the case. The fans are factored into the case's price, and each belongs to a clearly designated area, so it makes the most sense to buy the 217 if you're planning to leave the stock fans alone.

Making a vertical mount that's compatible with shroud-mounted fans is tricky, and Lian Li accomplished it with an elaborate collection of hardware: a tiny shroud extension at the front so the fans can be shifted forwards, another slightly larger extension at the back to mount a standoff to, then the standoffs. With all that in the accessory kit, it’s not usable for a vertical GPU without a riser cable, which they don’t include, but it’d also heavily impact the price.

The removable top radiator bracket is a welcome return from the 216; it can support up to a 360mm radiator without issue, but other mounting locations would require moving the stock fans. We found ourselves removing the top bracket and popping the tool-less front fans off to work inside the case, which makes components accessible from multiple angles.

PSUs can be mounted in either "Standard Mode" for up to 220mm length or "Rotated Mode" (the default) for up to 180mm length. As with the Lancool 207 (read our review), we suggest sticking to shorter (~150mm) PSUs in rotated mode to allow extra room for cable bends. 

If you use one of Lian Li's Edge PSUs, it must be mounted fan-side-up and will compete with the GPU for air.

A fan and RGB hub is included, which may be another feature intended for UNI fan compatibility given that the case doesn't ship with any RGB LEDs. The hub splits SATA power, a 5V ARGB input, and a 4-pin PWM fan input across four ARGB outputs and six fan outputs. 

The manual specifies which fans should be connected to each port, but we confirmed (with a tachometer) that fans run at the same speed regardless of which port is used.

There are two power buttons. There's the obvious one at the top of the case, but there's another tucked away with the rest of the I/O on the side of the case. This is a continuation of the 216 (watch our review), which allowed swapping the entire I/O assembly between the two locations. It’s a compromise as compared to the 216’s swappable options. The buttons are hardwired to a unified front panel connector, so they can only be used for power. 

Lian Li has already responded to user criticism of the lack of support for moving the I/O by announcing that its 217 Infinity (which we saw at Computex) will allow I/O top-mounted as well.

There are two other features from the 216 that were dropped. First, the unusual fan bracket that could be stuck over the rear expansion slots is gone, but our original testing didn't show any significant benefit to installing a fan there. Secondly, Lian Li has dropped the screw from the glass panel, which is a nitpick we'll always bring up: glass panels should have a way to be fastened down securely for transit.

The drive support is difficult to summarize on a spec sheet. There are two 2.5" mounts behind the motherboard tray, but only one of them can be used if an mATX back-connect board is installed. There's another 2.5" mounting location on top of the PSU shroud (if the rearmost fan slot isn't used). Finally, there are two traditional HDD cages in the accessory kit that fit underneath the PSU shroud, each of which fits two drives in any combination of 3.5" and 2.5." This is unusually generous for a modern case, but keep in mind that only one drive cage will fit with the PSU in standard mode.

The 217 includes the same flip-able cable grommet bar that the 216 did. Rotating the bar gives clearance and exposes standoffs for SSI-EEB boards up to 330mm in width.

Cable management space depends on the PSU orientation and drive cages, but the cable cutouts are large and aren't compromised as a result of back-connect compatibility. Removing the small GPU support opens up another large cutout, although it lacks a rubber grommet. The plastic clips at the rear of the case from the 216 are back, making EPS12V cable routing especially easy. 

When our sample shipped, the mesh section below the glass side panel had deformed slightly, probably during shipping. We were able to bend it back, but the metal in this area is thin and hard to perfectly flatten.

Lian Li Lancool 217 Thermals

Lian Li includes a front filter in the accessory kit, with a note in the manual that states "if you need better performance, please do not install this filter." Based on this, we treated the filter-less case as stock and ran one test with it installed. We ran CPU mode, GPU mode, and a test with the GPU installed vertically in GPU mode, although (as we explained earlier) we were forced to install the GPU one slot closer to the glass than we wanted to because of the length of the PCIe riser cable that we had.

Fractal's recent Meshify 3 (read our review) is an obvious point of comparison for the Lancool 217 with prices as low as $140; our charted results are for the more expensive RGB variant, but performance should be similar between the Meshify 3 SKUs. Antec's Flux and Flux Pro may be the closest cases on the market in terms of both price and appearance, to the point that it seems like an intentional strategy from Lian Li, but for now we only have the Flux Pro on our charts. The Pro has a couple features that more closely match the 217, like the three available shroud-top fan mounts and rotatable PSU, but the non-Pro is the one that matches the 217's price. Montech's HS01 Pro (read our review) is another case with a mesh front and a high stock fan count that's launched recently; we generally preferred the glass-fronted HS02, but the HS01 Pro directly competes for the 217's market.

CPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-Normalized

We'll start with noise-normalized thermals, where we use our hemi-anechoic chamber to measure the overall SPL of the case and then lower fan speeds in tandem until it hits our threshold of 27 dBA. 

Noise levels were slightly different in the 217’s CPU mode and GPU mode (as we'll detail later on), so they required slightly different fan settings in order to hit the threshold. With those adjustments, both configurations averaged 41 degrees Celsius above ambient across all cores and 45 degrees across the P-cores. This is also exactly why we have the acoustic chamber -- we wouldn’t be able to pick up such small differences in noise before, and that slight adjustment shows that they’re about the same for the CPU once we adjust for RPM.

The Meshify 3 placed higher on the chart than the 217, but its results were close enough to be basically equivalent at 40 degrees all-core and 44 P-core. Montech's HS01 Pro uses a bottom-intake configuration and therefore has comparatively weak CPU thermals with our test hardware, averaging 49 all-core. Meanwhile, the Antec Flux Pro matches the Lancool 217's thermal performance here almost exactly, although again the non-Pro variant is a closer match in price.

Lian Li's older Lancool 216 also remains unbeaten here, with thermals that closely match the Meshify 3 and are therefore pretty close to the 217 as well. The 216 had highly unusual 160mm intake fans, especially for the time, with extra-wide frames to prevent air re-circulation, and we found them effective in our review and that still holds up today.

GPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-Normalized

Looking at the GPU thermal data for the same set of noise-normalized results reveals a more significant gap between the case configurations. CPU mode is at 44 degrees above ambient for the average GPU temperature and 48 degrees for GPU memory, while GPU mode dropped that to 42 and 45 degrees, respectively. Given that the previous chart showed CPU temperatures were unaffected, that makes GPU mode the better configuration overall for our test hardware. Although there are two intake fans directly below the GPU, biasing the front intake fans lower in the case has a chance to improve thermals even further. That lines up with what we generally found even with the previous iteration of our test bench, where GPU thermals generally had more room for improvement than CPU in high-airflow cases.

GPU mode gave the 217 a slight advantage over the Meshify 3, although the delta was less than one degree with the Meshify 3 averaging 43 degrees above ambient. The HS01 Pro ran similarly to the Meshify 3, and the Flux Pro landed on top at 41 degrees.

The older 216 performed similarly to the HS01 Pro with a 43 degree average, which is to say it also performed similarly to the 217. All the results we have recorded for the 216 this time around are in the stock configuration; in our original review, we found that the alternate air-cooling mode slightly improved GPU thermals and slightly worsened CPU thermals with an old bench.

GPU Full Load Thermals - Full Speed

Moving to the full speed tests, the Lancool 217 is now the loudest case on this chart other than the Fractal North XL, measuring in at 44.8 dBA with all five fans running at their maximum speed (44.3 in CPU mode). We'll skip right to GPU thermals here, since CPU thermals were the same in all four tested configurations. As expected, the vertically mounted GPU test had the worst average at 47 degrees above ambient, followed by CPU mode at 43 degrees, then GPU mode at 40 degrees. This would improve with a GPU in the slot closer to the board.

Installing the front filter had no significant effect on thermals or noise in this test, which isn't something we see often, so Lian Li deserves some credit. Technically the result with the filter installed had a slightly cooler average than without, but within our one degree margin for test variance, and the GPU memory temperature stayed at 41 degrees for both tests. This is within error. That means that the filter has minimal impact on GPU thermals in our test, so it isn’t that obstructive. That’s good for Lian Li. 

The GPU Mode 217 outperformed the Meshify 3 and HS01 Pro by about one degree, but it's also audibly louder than either of those cases, while the Flux Pro manages to be both cooler at 38 degrees and quieter at 39.7 dBA in comparison to the 217.

This is the first test we've seen so far where the 217 puts a gap between itself and the 216, with the older 216 averaging 43 degrees above ambient.

VRM & RAM Full Load Thermals - Full Speed

We would normally examine the VRM and RAM thermals from the noise-normalized results, but sticking with the full speed chart instead allows us to see how the various configurations affected motherboard temperatures. All four of the VR VCC sensor results recorded for the 217 rank among the best we've seen, with the CPU mode result at 20 degrees above ambient, both GPU mode results at 19, and the vertical GPU result at 17 degrees. Mounting the GPU vertically doesn't do the GPU itself any favors, but in the 217 it allows the bottom intake fans to blow directly up through the case without being blocked by the horizontal GPU cooler.

SPD Hub temperatures from the RAM were similarly excellent, with the vertical GPU result also on top at 10 degrees above ambient. GPU temperatures are a higher priority, but motherboard temperatures are worth taking into account when evaluating vertical GPU mounts, which we’re doing here.

Lian Li Lancool 217 Conclusion

The Lancool 217 isn't leaps and bounds ahead of the previous Lancool 216, but it includes some logical changes and improvements based on case trends (wood, back connect motherboard support) as well as Lian Li's own products (EDGE PSUs, STRIMER cables, UNI fans). 

The wooden decoration on the front panel is the most significant change, followed by the tool-less fans which make reconfiguration easier than it was in the 216. The 216 already had excellent thermal performance, and for the most part the 217 simply matches it, only really pulling ahead when the case fans are all pushed to max speed (which is impractical due to noise).

At $120, the 217 competes favorably with the similarly-performing but more expensive $140+ Meshify 3, although Fractal has options for RGB lighting. The fans and performance you get for the money push the 217 past Montech's HS01 Pro, leaving the $120 Antec Flux non-Pro as the strongest contender. 

The 217 seems to be Lian Li's attempt to match the Flux Pro in performance and features while matching the size and price of the non-Pro, and it's a success in those aspects. That said, the Flux non-Pro is similar to the 217, and the comparison between the two comes down to some very specific items. 

The 217 has excellent stock fans, more spare connections on its built-in fan hub, support for rotated PSUs, it fits SSI-EEB motherboards, it can fit a greater number of drives, and it has some out-of-the-box support for vertical GPU mounting (although it doesn't include a riser cable). The Flux has potentially better airflow at the bottom of the case due to its ventilated floor, and its fan layout is more reconfigurable since all the stock fans are either 120s or 140s. Some of us at GN prefer the 217, but it's a tight race.

We’ve rounded up the best PC cases we saw at Computex 2025

The Highlights

• Thermalright is known for making a ton of cheap coolers and its trying that strategy with cases, starting with a $45 one
• SilverStone’s FLP02 is a retro-themed case that features 5.25” bay covers that resemble floppy drives
• Cooler Master showed off its MF cases, which offer a modular approach to case design
• Hyte’x X50 is the company’s most mechanically complicated product to manufacture to-date
• Lian Li is embedding fans into its case’s glass front panels

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

During our Computex 2025 trip, we saw numerous case announcements. In this story, we’ve rounded up the most promising cases.

The showstopper this year was Silverstone’s FLP02, which is a retro-themed PC case with a functioning real turbo button, molded 5 and a ¼-inch drive bay covers that resemble floppies, and a throwback look with modern compatibility.    
Corsair also made bold moves. It had a case that split its radiator chamber into its own isolated compartment.

Thermalright is also threatening the case industry the same way it did to the cooler industry by bringing a $45 MicroATX case to the market.

Editor's note: This was originally published on June 1, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host, Writing, Editing

Steve Burke

Camera, Editing

Mike Gaglione

Camera

Vitalii Makhnovets

Editing

Tim Phetdara
Andrew Coleman

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Cooler Master is back on the scene, too, introducing its MF series of cases.  

HAVN has the BF360, which couples a heavy focus on fan design and case-thermal engineering to content with Hyte’s X50, for what each company hopes will be the top performing case on thermal charts. 

This story will re-cap some of the best cases that we think are coming out over the next few months. We’ll, of course, have to review these cases as they launch, which means we’ll have a busy year with cases. We also plan on running a story on the best cases of 2025 at the end of the year, which will include all of our test data. For now, we’re looking at the best cases from Computex 2025. 

Thermalright TR M10

Thermalright is best known for making a ton of cheap coolers. The company is applying that strategy to their first case, which they announced at Computex. Thermalright revealed its TR M10 MicroATX case, which will start at $45 and scale up to $65 for a model that includes an LCD and a digital display. Neither variant will include fans. 

The case has good cable management depth and simple cable-management passthroughs without BTF support. It also has heavily ventilated panels everywhere. The TR M10 fits 3x120mm side-mounted fans for intake and can technically fit fans at the top of the power-supply shroud. This is made somewhat more viable, although distance is a challenge, by all of the holes punched through the floor of the case and even the drive cages.

The more expensive $65 variant will feature an RGB digital display at the front that’s capable of spitting out basic numbers or seven-segment text. Externally, the case is simple. Thermalright has punched holes everywhere including the company’s logo on the side panel. The case also has a glass front and side. 

Thermalright has added shiny plastic accents to the top and front. It's intended to look like brushed aluminum, though we don’t think it looks like that. The ventilation everywhere is at least promising for thermal performance at its price. 

If the company is able to apply its CPU cooler model to cases, it will be a major price disruption for the case industry. 

Silverstone

SilverStone FLP02

Up next: SilverStone’s FLP02 gets our next spot in this round-up. The retro-themed case is an actual real attempt at a modern computer case, not just some meme, while preserving aspects of cases from the late 80s and early 90s. Its clearest downside is limited cooling capabilities, with the clearest upside being the reason it has limitations in cooling: It’s true to the era while modernizing compatibility. The SilverStone FLP02 is a looks-first case, but not in the usual way. 

The case builds upon Silverstone’s FLP01 smaller form factor case, which was originally an April Fool’s joke, and deploys a functional retro theming: The front panel features 5.25” bay covers that resemble floppy drives and include functional levers for removal. The bays can be used as typical. Below these molded covers, there’s a functional I/O panel with a power switch and reset button, both controllable by the key lock which prevents accidental usage, which is more of a call-back to the old days. With the key in the unlocked position, the switches can be used as normal power/reset buttons. There’s also a Turbo Button, which controls fan speed. In theory, someone crafty could rewire it for use with something else. Above the stack of 5.25” bay covers is a covered set of modern USB and 3.5mm I/O for audio.

The box doesn’t have a ton of airflow. The bottom-front of the case has largely blocked-off intake and support for a fan below the drive cages is really the main place you’re bringing air in. Have no illusions: This will be a poor performer in our thermal benchmarking compared to other cases and that’s the trade-off they’ve chosen, so the objective would be to configure the build in a way where cooling can brute force past restrictive panels. The front panel supports two 120mm fans, depending on drive layout, the top supports 3x 120 or 2x 140 fans, the rear can fit a 120 or 140.

The top panel is also relatively low porosity while still allowing more air movement than the cases this is inspired by. The top can accommodate liquid cooling radiators, including the 360 shown installed. This is the type of case where you’d probably want to use a liquid cooler to help overcome limitations of airflow.

Internally, the tooling for the FLP02 is the same as SilverStone’s existing series of SETA Q1, H1, and D1 series cases. 

SilverStone expects to sell the case for 200 EUR. US pricing was in flux due to variable tariffs, with an expectation of $220 USD pricing.

LD05

The company also had more contemporary cases, like the LD05 fishtank case. The LD05 has heavily ventilated lower panels and a ventilated side panel to get air into the system. This is more of a traditional design by today’s standards. SilverStone plans to ship it with 3x 120 ARGB fans included and wants to hit $100, depending on tariffs, for a budget-focused airflow case with the glass look to it.

Cooler Master

Cooler Master MF Cases

Cooler Master’s back in it this year. The company had a ton of cases. We’ll focus on the modularity offered by the MF series and will recap the others at the end of the section.

For the MF series, which we’ve decided means “Motherf*ckin,” Cooler Master has the MF600, MF500, and MF400 cases as pre-configured options of an otherwise totally modular approach to case design. The MF series will use a set of 8 corners and 12 columns, meaning that each case starts as a box of parts that can get screwed together into a case. These columns and corners will couple with a rails system internally to build the motherboard tray, allowing the cases to be reconfigured into nearly any layout. That includes inverted, mirrored or flipped, standard ATX, and also different form factors altogether.

Initially, Cooler Master plans to sell these as pre-configured, fully assembled cases by using the modular parts. In the future, the company wants to offer the ability for users to customize the build on a web interface, at which point the build instructions would go to Cooler Master’s new Los Angeles-based assembly team in the US.

As for what’s being sold sometime this year, the MF400 through 600 will be varying sizes and layouts. 

The MF600 is the largest of these, with 3x 140 fans and 1x 120 fan included. Price target is $200, tariffs notwithstanding. The MF600 has an all aluminum look to it, though uses a mix of materials for the chassis. Externally, Cooler Master has done well to blend the columns, corners, and panels to create something that has a less-gamer aesthetic to it. The front-to-back flow design is classic and should work well. Internally, the motherboard tray is basically a giant hole with some rails and slats across for support. This means a weaker tray structurally, but one which is more versatile (as shown in the reconfiguration with different orientations).

The pre-configured MF500 should be $165 and will have 2x 200mm fans and 1x 120mm fan, a much finer mesh front, and I/O on the bottom of the front panel. Going with the 2x 200s is a classic Cooler Master move that we’re looking forward to testing. 

The MF400 is micro-ATX, and so it’s smaller, with a lower price target at $150 for the same 2x 200 and 1x 120 configuration. It still uses 8 corners and 12 columns.

Cooler Master also debuted its new Cosmos cases, including a special edition variation with the NVIDIA DGX style front panel and another with ductwork for air cooling. We are currently critical of the special edition’s liquid cooling configuration and question how well it’ll work, though the size of the radiator should brute force performance (since it’s using 4x 180mm fans). It’s just that they’re blowing straight into a motherboard and wall. 

The company also showcased its “Elite” series of budget cases, featuring a tragedy of naming that doesn’t have much rhyme or reason for the model numbers. 

It also had a new Q500 Core following the Q500 series styling. The Q500 Core is supposed to be $60 to $70 and is made entirely of steel. It’ll include 3D print source files for modifications and can fit up to a 360mm radiator, but it’s not our focus today.

Hyte

Hyte X50

Hyte showcased its new X50 case, which is its most mechanically complicated product to manufacture to-date. The X50 uses a bubbly external look while attempting to be the highest-performing case on benchmark charts. Hyte uses a front panel that’s perforated all the way around the apex of the turn, leaving only a small strip at the mounting point for rigidity. The case also has louvered slats at the back, including for the PCIe slots, which add mechanical and manufacturing complexity but strengthen the chassis structure while improving airflow performance. Hyte noted that its intent, which we’ll test in our review, is to help project air away from the system, highlighting that there’s always focus on reducing intake impedance but noting that exhaust impedance is similarly important.

The louvered approach means that PCIe slot covers keep all of their original steel (rather than being removed like a typical slot cover), but the gaps are created by punching the steel outward and twisting at the joint. This keeps rigidity while theoretically reducing exhaust impedance.

The case is almost entirely steel. Internally, the power supply shroud is steel, the motherboard tray (as usual) is steel, and the walls are mostly steel. The floor and some connecting pieces are plastic, but its presence is overall mitigated.

Hyte has a few styles of feet for the X50, including what the company refers to as “paws” (shown as the rounded feet) on some color models, with bars for models like the white case.

The case can have either a laminated so-called “acoustic glass” side panel or a full-on mesh panel that’s focused on cooling performance. 

The top-mounted PSU shroud will help by enabling more bottom intake by getting the PSU out of the way, in addition to using the power supply as another fan to help guide air through the system. With a fully mesh panel, this should also help bring air into the computer from outside.

We’ll see how the case does in our review, but from a manufacturing and engineering standpoint, it already gets credit for overcoming challenges with going as mesh-heavy as the case is. You can learn more in our interview with Product Director Rob Teller in the X50 coverage from Computex. We spend a lot of time talking about Hyte’s tens of thousands of dollars of failed samples, where the company walked us through all the trial-and-error of front panels before it finally figured out how to manufacture the panel the company wanted. The case should be priced for $120 with mesh and $150 with glass pre-tariff.

Lian Li

Lian Li had a relatively large breakthrough this year with its ongoing attempts to figure out how to embed fans in glass front panels. This has historically been challenging since it results in lower yields and broken glass, or in the worst case, just less surface area available for intake since a larger border has to remain for structural reasons.

The Lian Li Lancool 217 Infinity and Lancool 4 cases both make use of this new approach to fans-in-glass, effectively mixing mesh grates in front of the fans with the tempered glass look.

The Lancool 217 Infinity is a Lancool 217 (check out our review here) including all of the tooling for the case internals. The only exception where tooling changed was to the front panel, enabling the infinity mirror effect with LEDs and the support for mounting the glass panel. The only other change is to IO, where Lian Li made it optionally mountable to the top or bottom side. The case will ship with 2x 170mm front fans in the glass and one rear-mounted fan. It should ship at $120.

The Lancool 4 is more complicated and is entirely new tooling. The case still uses the 4-door approach that the Lancool series has become known for, so the left side features a large sheet of glass resting on top of a mesh plate that opens separately. The mesh plate allows intake through fans mounted in the bottom of the case (or just the GPU), with lower panel side mounting available for 120mm fans. The panels open with a button release mechanism to allow them to separately lock. The right side also features glass and steel, with a clear line of sight through the other side of the front of the case. A cable cover door can be screwed down to hide the cable management.

A pogo pin setup allows the front panel to transfer power without use of a cable, followed by a mix of painted glass and plastic covers to hide cables daisy chaining the fans. Lian Li is considering including 3x 140x30mm front fans and 3x 120x25 side fans, with a pricing target at $130 including all 6 of these fans. This would be extremely competitive if they can do it. Lian Li has committed on camera with us to a 5-year warranty for the fans.

Lian Li had a few honorable mentions at the show: Its O11 Mini V2 made an appearance and manages to cram an ATX power supply into the case by punching out space in the side panel. The Mini V2 should be $90 without fans and $100 with 5x 120 fans. The Dan Case B4 was also an interesting showing, mostly for its ability to attach feet and switch to a much higher volume vertical orientation. It makes use of the space provided by the feet by also including a radiator extension chamber to support a 360mm radiator on the side. More interestingly to us, the Vector 100 and Vector 100 Mini cases are extremely cheap. The Vector 100 Mini micro-ATX case is intended to sell for $45 without fans, making it a direct competitor to Thermalright’s new mATX case. 

Antec x Noctua

Antec and Noctua are up next in a collaboration. The companies are working together to manufacture an alternative to the Antec Flux Pro except with Noctua fans. The Flux Pro was already a chart-topper in our case benchmarks and reviews and has been a high performer, so Antec isn’t changing much beyond colors and what fans are included.

The companies will do a like-for-like swap of 6 Noctua fans in place of the 6 Antec fans, switching to 4x 140mm NF-A14 G2 fans and 2x 120mm NF-A12 G2 fans for the shroud top. 

The case price is still being finalized, but it’ll be expensive. We’d expect to see this fall in the range of the $300s to $400s somewhere, as the case itself is typically around $180 before the Noctua fans.

Most of the time was spent on coloring the brown panels and grommets to match the fans as closely as possible.

Antec also had some other stuff, like the company’s new Antec 900, which is based on the case of the same name from decades ago.

The case had 2 variants. One of them included 2x200mm Noctua fans at the front. 

HAVN BF360

We toured the HAVN testing lab in Taiwan to look at the company’s new BF360 case, following-up the HS420 that we previously reviewed overall positively. In addition to a 40+ page presentation from its thermal engineer detailing all the various testing performed to prepare the new case and fans for launch, we also got a look at the new BF360 and its fans. We appreciated the time the company spent to demonstrate all of its testing and engineering, as most companies don’t make thermal engineers readily available.

HAVN’s new BF360 aims to be highly competitive for case thermals and has dedicated a significant amount of that toward fine-tuning the fans. We’ll see how it does in testing later in the year, of course. The case will use 2x 180mm fans at 40mm thickness in the front, helping with higher static pressure performance. In testing, HAVN experimented with positioning these front fans higher versus lower on the front panel, settling to mostly bias them slightly up in the case. This should help push more air straight into the GPU, which gets further tuning from a “ramp” shaped at the front of the PSU shroud. HAVN tested numerous shroud ramp types and shapes, finding ultimately that a wide, relatively modestly angled ramp provided the best performance with the fewest acoustic trade-offs.

The panels are heavy-duty and designed with similar attention to detail as the HS420. The case has tuned placement of the structural struts in the panels to reduce impedance to flow, with wide enough top mounting to support more 180mm fans without additional fan mount rail obstructions if going the larger route. 

HAVN has brought over smaller attention to detail embellishments on this case from the HS 420, including molded text in the plastic cable routing channels to guide novice users to potentially optimal routing pathways. For looks, HAVN is going for white and black, but with a faked stone-looking front panel. Pulling that front panel reveals the steel plate above the top 180mm fan, serving to prevent re-circulation and force air intake through the ideal channels.

For the fans, HAVN experimented with fans up to 52mm thick, but ultimately settled on 40mm thick options for a balance of thickness and performance. All of HAVN’s new fans use larger bearings, which it says helps to stabilize the blade during rotation. HAVN also has notched the leading edge of the blades to help capture and force air through the blades, although we’d need to see A/B testing to know how much that really matters.

Corsair

Corsair’s Computex showing this year was much stronger than some of its prior years. The company seems to be pushing hard after the relatively good reception of its FRAME 4000D cases and is expanding the scope of the FRAME series, but also making some radical cooling changes to its new cases.

Corsair showed its new FRAME 5000D with LCD panel, its Air 5400 with effectively three chambers that completely isolate front radiator air from the rest of the system, and it had a prototype FRAME 4000D with a power board from Singularity PCs.

The FRAME 5000D is a larger 4000D and we’ll likely test it soon enough, so we’ll skip that one and focus on the most unique of these.

The Corsair Air 5400 uses a separate chamber for a front-mounted radiator, which involves running the tubes across effectively shop brush bristles for tube routing. This means that the radiator, likely used for the CPU cooler, would pull air in externally and then propel it out of the case immediately by following an interior curved wall. The air never gets into the main chamber, which means it doesn’t increase local ambient temperature. Likewise, as a downside, this means less airflow over ignored components like the VRM or system memory. 

The bottom of the case uses a duct to guide air straight in from bottom intake, then points it straight at the GPU. Corsair claims that its A/B testing of this ductwork creates about a 1-2 degree improvement in GPU thermals versus testing without it. Likewise, there’s another top-mounted duct that could encase top fans to provide some cooling to the rest of the motherboard, although flow-through cooling from a GPU would also push air into the memory. It’ll be warmed, but that’s better than no airflow.

The rear can technically fit a 120mm fan with an adapter, but there’s no real reason to mount one. It’ll blow nearly half the air straight into a curved glass wall, potentially causing noise issues but definitely limiting thermal benefits.

Overall, the case is a riskier attempt at a new design that we don’t often see from Corsair. We’re looking forward to thermal testing on it.

The FRAME 4000D Prototype is also worth showing here: The power board at the back doesn’t provide any logging functionality (like you might find with an Elmor Labs Benchtable), but does offer cable routing by funneling all the connectors through a rear-mounted PCB. 

Like everyone else, they had other cases present, such as an open frame case, but we’ll point you toward our Computex news coverage for that.

Thermaltake

Thermaltake also had a lot at the show. For cases, its IX700 enclosure was being used in an immersion cooling system, which was mostly just cool to see. 

The more consumer-focused cases for our audience would include the View 390 Air, the TR200, and the TR300.

The TR200 and TR300 introduce larger versions of the mini-ITX TR100, just with micro-ATX support in one and ATX support in the other. Micro-ATX seems to be taking off more this year in the case market.

The View 390 Air uses a curved tempered glass panel around the top and side, with options for up to 200mm fans at the front. Thermaltake hasn’t yet finalized the stock fan configuration, but has finalized the price: It’s trying to hit $150 pre-tariff and the company thinks it can include 2 fans at that price. They mentioned to us options of either 2x 200s at the front or 2x 120s at the back or side. We’d favor the 2x 200s, mostly because users with liquid coolers will already be getting 120s, and 120s are also more common just in bins of parts from seasoned PC builders.

The case can fit fans along the right side panel as well, with 2x 120 rear exhaust fans available optionally at the back. Two can fit here because the optional screen location, found above the motherboard tray, makes the case taller and provides the clearance for a second fan.

The front panel design uses a brick pattern with a high porosity, which might actually make this fairly competitive thermally, depending on the fan configuration.

Phanteks

Phanteks was also present at the show. Phanteks had the budget-focused G370A ATX case and its XT M3 micro-ATX case. The G370A makes compromises to hit a price target of $60 while including 3x 120 RGB M25 fans. Phanteks described it as a smaller version of the G400 case. The case can fit SSI-EEB boards, though they’d block all the cable management routing aside from the highest pass-throughs, and is otherwise about as standard and plain as a case can be. The goal is price on this one.

You can learn more about the XT M3 in our Phanteks Computex coverage.

Tryx

Tryx was also present at Computex. The new Flova case is currently a concept, but Tryx is experimenting with trying to get a crossflow fan integrated with axial fans in the case. The idea would be to shove a crossflow (or transverse) fan in the space that could traditionally be used for larger front fans, which would then provide a more even, laminar flow along the top edge of the GPU and nearest the glass. Crossflow fans aren’t necessarily the best at this type of cooling, but could definitely be tuned to be competitive with enough research and care. We saw it work in the Meshless AIO mini-ITX case previously.

For now, this is an experiment that we’re excited about because we want to test something different. We have an animation showing how these work in our Meshless AIO case video review, in case you want to learn more of the science.

Montech

As for Montech, the company had a ton of cases present and will be launching them over the next year or so, with some out in Q2 2026.

For this article, we’ll just keep it short and focus on the cheapest cases from Montech that are coming out the soonest, as the others are all still being finalized:

The X5 and X5M are Montech’s newest budget-focused cases. The case is supposed to be $60 for the micro-ATX X5M and $70-$75 on the X5 ATX case. These cases use a wavy, ventilated mesh front panel. The X5 intends to include 3x 140 fans and 1x 120 stock, with an optional 2x 120 fans for the top of the shroud (which would have limited benefit due to the panel styling). The $60 X5M will include 4x 120 fans.

In Win

In Win’s cases were mostly too early in development to get into detail on. The company didn’t have prices or fan configurations ready, so we’ll skip all of those until they’re closer to ready. 

The one we can close on though is In Win’s Chronomancy, which was its 40-year anniversary case design. It’s not really meant to be sold. They expect to make around 40 units, fittingly, but it’s just kind of cool.

The case uses an IR wand with gestures to open the exterior aluminum shell, close it, open the other chamber, or adjust the volume level of various music tracks baked into the case with its included speaker. Manufacturing the case is a nightmare, using a large and thick sheet of acrylic that gets laser engraved and then slowly bent. The aluminum panels also require bending, with the front using a stainless steel and the base using large aluminum pillars.

Inside, the Chronomancy does actually hold a computer, but it’s obviously secondary to the design.

We take a look at ID-Cooling’s new air and liquid coolers, which aim to balance quality and value with their designs

The Highlights

• ID-Cooling’s A720 AD and A720 TD represent the company’s attempt to fix its acoustic problems while being affordable
• ID Cooling has a range of liquid coolers from low-end to high-end starting around $80 to $100 for 360mm coolers
• The company’s SL360 V2 Plus cooler interestingly uses a larger radiator than it does fans

Table of Contents

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Intro

We visited ID-Cooling’s booth at Computex 2025 and the company showed off scented paste…and a bunch of coolers.

Looking at the company’s product at the trade show, we found ID-Cooling’s products to be more expensive than Thermalright's, but they’re cheaper than others in the market. This places them somewhere in the middle but the company is trying to keep quality levels in focus for some of their designs.

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 24, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Camera, Video Editing

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

A720 AD 

ID-Cooling has updated its A720. It’s calling it the A720 AD and it’s targeting the higher-end market but still trying to be affordable at around $70. It represents a serious overhaul from the A720 that we’ve tested before, which was one of the top performers for its price. It was competitive with Noctua and was cheaper. The updated A720 now has pogo pins to deliver power to the fan. This means the fan doesn’t have a cable. 

ID-Cooling has also soldered the finstack to the heatpipes. This is something a couple companies are doing now. Some of them claim that this offers no performance improvement whereas others do claim a performance uplift. ID-Cooling says that, in a like-for-like scenario comparing the old A720 with the new one, the company is seeing about a 2 degree improvement at 280 watts. 

The A720 AD uses PBT fans. The most expensive fans typically use LCP, which uses a liquid crystal material in the middle for the blades. Sometimes they’ll do LCP for the inner and the outer part of the fan. This is what Noctua has done for its super expensive fans where the company is trying to get the tip-to-frame clearance as small as possible, hitting clearance numbers like .6mm or .8mm. This low of a clearance requires LCP or metal. ID-Cooling is using PBT, which helps with the price. The company tells us it’s supposed to be 30% fiberglass reinforced, which helps maintain the rigidity as the fan blades stretch towards the inner walls of the frame over time. 

620 AD

We tested ID-Cooling’s 620 in the past as well. It competed pretty closely with ID-Cooling’s older AK620, but the company showed off its new 620 AD. Like the A720 AD, the company is soldering the fin stack to the heatpipes so there’s some improvement from that and it also moves to a newer fan design. 

We asked ID-Cooling what is the biggest thing it’s trying to change with its revised coolers, and the company told us acoustics is the number 1 complaint it got. So the company has reshaped its blades to feature a more gradual curve to mitigate this issue. ID-Cooling has also changed the blade angle at the hub. We aim to test all of this as soon as it becomes available. It will be $55 and the company hasn’t announced a release date yet. We imagine it might come out around Q4. 

The 620AD offers 3 different levels for the RAM clearance on the front, which can be adjusted and clipped in. 

The outside fan is 28mm and the inside fan is 30mm. This allows the cooler to maintain a higher static pressure through the fin stack, especially with the dual-tower fin stacks. 

410 TD 

ID-Cooling already has its 410 series of coolers, but the company showed off its 410 TD at Computex. The TD stands for temperature display. This does increase the price a little and will supposedly make the 410 TD a $35 cooler.  It has a temperature digital display that shows the CPU temp. The finstack thickness has also changed with the TD model moving to 50mm. The heatpipes are all using a composite powder and groove style. 

It’s also made changes to the cold plate where ID-Cooling is trying to push the 4 heatpipes as close together as possible. It’s not as impressive as we saw at Scythe’s Computex booth, where Scythe basically conjoined them all into one direct touch pad, but they’re getting closer.  

ID-Cooling Liquid Coolers

ID-Cooling showed off a bunch of liquid coolers at Computex 2025, though not as much as at Thermalright’s booth.

SL 360 V2+

One of the liquid coolers, the SL 360 V2+,  immediately jumped out at us because its fans are a different width than the radiator. That’s abnormal. The fans are 120mm but the radiator measures 140mm wide and it was done to incorporate LED lights on the sides of the fans. 

To compensate for the smaller fans, ID-Cooling has added 2 water channels. ID-Cooling also added more liquid. Between the tank and the extra channels, it ends up with 36g more liquid. The propylene glycol percentage is around 15%. The reason that’s important is that the more distilled water there is in the loops, the better the cooling performance is. Propylene glycol helps with things like cold storage, transit, freight, and cold temperatures, but going too high with that compromises performance. 15% is a little on the lower end, which is a good thing for performance. The fans are AP120s and are 28mm thick. ID-Cooling tells us the cooler will have a 6-year warranty and that the surface area has been increased by about 15% compared to traditional 360 setups due to the size change. The cooler is supposed to be $190 when it comes out. 

Unfortunately, the cooler doesn’t come with an offset bracket, and we’ve requested that ID-Cooling include one. 

ID-Cooling informed us that there’s a .5mm gap between the bottom of the microfins and the bottom of the cold plate. Lian Li is experimenting with .3. The downside to that, or  something smaller, is there could be more flex/more weakness. The upside is the performance will be better because you’re getting the liquid and the microfins closer to the heat source, which is the CPU IHS.  

FX 360 TD Black  

At $80, the FX 360 TD Black is the cheapest liquid cooler ID-Cooling showed off. It offers a 360mm cooling setup that’s 27mm thick, which is standard. 

With an LCD screen, it’s $90. And it’s a 240x240 screen. 

DX 360

The company’s DX 360 liquid cooler offers a thicker 38mm radiator. It’s supposed to be $120 with its 2.8-inch LCD screen. Launch is TBD. 

DX 360 GDL 

We saw a prototype of the DX 360 GDL at the show. The key thing about this liquid cooler is that it has very short 100mm-length tubes. They go out from the block and go right into the radiator. The downside to this design is that it forces you to put your radiator at the top, which can be problematic in a super-tall case. The benefit to this design is that it looks clean.

ID-Cooling has also added 82 grams of additional liquid by changing the radiator size, which is 130mm wide and has 120mm fans that are 27mm thick. 

Its cap is also magnetic and pulls right off, which exposes the top of the tubes and the rest of the cooler’s block.

We take a look at Thermaltake’s full immersion cooling setup and several new cases that include the View 390 Air, TR200, TR300, and more

The Highlights

• Thermaltake’s full immersion cooling setup uses liquid and comically large hoses coupled with a massive radiator system
• Thermaltake’s upcoming View 390 Air case looks promising and offers a curved glass side panel
• The company’s TR200 and TR300 are budget friendly cases that include a TFT display panel on the front
• Thermaltake’s Mine Cube looks very reminiscent of another popular IP and offers a cooler block with 4 screens

Table of Contents

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Intro

We visited Thermaltake’s booth at Computex 2025 and the company showed off its Immersion Cooling system, View 390 Air case, “Minecube” cooler, and TR200/TR300 cases.

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 20, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Camera, Video Editing

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Immersion Cooling

At the show floor, the company showed off a setup that offers 50 liters of “immersion cooling” within their new IX700 case. Immersion cooling means that the system is in liquid. The liquid is PA2, which is one of the more economical solutions, but is still expensive. Thermaltake tells us it's between $20 to $30 per liter.

The liquid is piped through 2 gigantic pipes, which Thermaltake tells us is rated for 20 bar. That’s insane. It then connects to a massive 4-radiator system. Overall, it’s a showcase for an enterprise solution, but it’s super cool. 

The PC had its CPU, an Intel Xeon w9-3495X, and GPU both at 100% load. CPU core temperature clocked in at about 60 degrees C and the GPU was about 64 degrees C. We estimate that the room the computer was in felt about 23 degrees C. 

The system is running 4 pumps and 4 radiators using a 4x420mm setup that are 64mm thick. Thermaltake is thinking that its immersion cooling setup will be a build-to-order enterprise solution. Taking a closer look at the radiators, they felt warm when we put our hands next to them.  

The system uses dielectric fluid, which means it’s non conductive. 

The hoses for the system seem overkill and we don’t know what industry they come from. 

View 390 Air

The View 390 Air is a $150 case. The company is thinking about including 2 fans for that price, but the company is still deciding between offering 2 fans in the front or in the back. In our opinion, Thermaltake should provide the 2x200mm fans in the front as users are less likely to already have those.   

The case’s glass side panel provides a solid wall all the way around the case. The glass measures 4-5mm thick, which is very large glass. Interestingly, closing off the top panel can work better for CPU thermals sometimes. The reason is that when you push air in, it’s not able to escape through the top.   

There is a screen that’s mounted above the motherboard, which is optional. If you don’t buy the screen version, there’s just a steel plate there instead. 

The case has spots for 3 sunken 120mm fans at the bottom and room for 3 fans on the side. We do like seeing the option for 2 fans in the back when there’s room for it, but it does make the case taller.   

TR100

The company showed off several different color SKUs of the TR100, which is a case that’s already out on the market. 

TR200 and TR300

Thermaltake also showed off its TR200 micro-ATX case. It’s supposed to be $80.

The TR300, meanwhile, is a $100 case. 

Neither case has a riser, which means the GPU is normally installed. Both cases use a newer TFT display panel on the front, which Thermaltake says offers better brightness and sharper resolution than their prior panels. 

The company also showed off a prototype wood front panel. 

Looking inside the TR300, we can see a lot of Yeston-inspired marketing material on the pump block. In addition, the case also has a closed-off side near its front that tries to obscure the power supply and its cables because the PSU is mounted to the front and is rotated on its side. Unfortunately, this design does limit options for intake fans in the front. The case relies on bottom intake fans and some on the side. Again, unfortunately, the bottom of the TR300 is not that elevated though the TR200 does have more room to breathe, which we liked seeing. 

Thermaltake is looking at a Q3 launch for both cases. 

Mine Cube

The font and aesthetics of the Mine Cube might look familiar, but is legally distinct... The Mine Cube is a cooler block with 4-sided screens, which includes the top and 3 sides. It sits on top of a VRM fan and RAM fan. 

One feedback we offered was that there was no vent on the north side to allow air to hit the VRM from this angle.

Internally, the block cover has some slats. The unit we saw only was able to get in air through one side, but we looked at a really early prototype. Users can orient the Mine Cube to whatever position they want. 

There’s a couple challenges for Thermaltake to overcome here. The first of which involves software, particularly if you want to try and link the screens in any way. The unit we saw at Computex had a character moving from one screen to the next. The other main challenge pertains to cost, especially as it comes to controlling the screens. To address this, Thermaltake has gone to a single IC to control all 4 screens. Regardless, the 360mm model, which is the only one we know of at the moment, still ends up around $350. When we asked them about the technological challenges of trying to drive 4 screens through a liquid cooler, the company said it was “not making it $600,” which is a totally valid answer. 

Thermaltake is targeting an August release for the Mine Cube. 

Project Edge

Thermaltake also showed off an early prototype of its Project Edge set of fans, which offers a series of progressing screens. The company thinks this is where the future of fans might be. To add some context here, Lian Li makes a bunch of money selling fans with LCDs on them. Now the direction might be LCDs on the side of fans.

We take a look at TRYX’s new Flova ATX case, updated LUCA L70, Turris air cooler, which features a 5-inch 720p screen, and more

The Highlights

• TRYX showed off its new Flova ATX case, which uses a crossflow cooling solution
• TRYX’s Turris air cooler offers a 5-inch 720p screen
• TRYX has made several improvements to its updated LUCA L70, which we originally called a disaster

Table of Contents

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Intro

We visited Tryx’s booth at Computex 2025 and the company showed off a bold new case design that features a crossflow fan plus two axial fans at the front. The company also showed off its updated Panorama cooler and LUCA L70 case as well as a new case and cooler.

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 24, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Camera, Video Editing

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

TRYX Crossflow Flova ATX Case

We produced a story on the meshless AIO Mini-ITX PC, which used a crossflow fan, and it was a very interesting product. Now Tryx is shoving crossflow fans into an ATX case its calling the Flova. 

Crossflow fans are separated by disks. These disks cut across and create blocks of fan blades. The fan blades run along the whole length of the fan with a very slight angle to them. The point of a crossflow design is that air can enter tangentially to the axis of the fan and then it gets spat out, effectively, perpendicularly. This is a less directed flow. Axial fan blades slice through the air and push it. There’s a bit of a buffering effect from that. The downside is that there’s less targeted flow. The upside is that it’s a more laminar flow and it’s also sort of a gentler flow across a larger area. 

The Flova is supposed to be around $140, which is dependent on the tariff situation. TRYX is thinking of including the crossflow fan and a 120mm rear fan. 

The case has a fabric on the side and front, which gives it a little Fractal vibe. TRYX is going to have to figure out the porosity here as it looks like it can’t breathe too well. That’s the biggest downside to the design at the moment, but the unit we looked at was just a prototype. 

The rest of the case is very traditional. The Flova has a ventilated shroud top. The front of the case can support 120mm or 140mm fans, but using 140mm fans would force the crossflow fans out.  

The downside to this crossflow fan design is that it reduces the maximum size of the axial fans on the front. The unit we saw at Computex coupled the crossflow fans with 120mm ones. Without the crossflow fans, TRYX says it thinks it could fit 200mm fans in the front and definitely 160mm ones and maybe 180mm fans. This poses an interesting A/B testing scenario: For instance, do 120mm fans coupled with crossflow ones perform better than just 200mm fans? We don’t have those answers at the moment. 

We can conceivably see, with a really good crossflow fan design and implementation, there’s a possibility that TRYX is able to improve the cooling performance across the CPU and GPU. It’s really going to depend on how the company tunes for acoustics because crossflow fans can be noisy with their drum motors, which, in this instance, are located at the very end near the power cable. In our testing, it can make some higher frequency noises. It also runs at a higher RPM. The unit we saw was running around 2,400 RPM. The benefit is that the case is able to pull in air through the front and side. The crossflow fans are also a little closer to the front of the video card and should help with GPU performance, but will depend on how TRYX engineers it. 

The company is saying that the case will arrive later this year. We think TRYX will need to spend time on the acoustic testing to find solutions to contain some of the noise. The fans aren’t THAT loud, but they are a different type of noise than what most people are used to. We’re excited about testing it and have no idea on how it will perform thermally vs something like exclusive 140mm fans on the front. 

TRYX Turris Air Cooler

Next up, we looked at TRYX’s upcoming Turris air cooler, which isn’t due out until probably early next year. We’re told Turris means something like “hurricane.” The cooler uses 6x6mm centered copper powder heat pipes. The cooler’s fin stacks are soldered to the heat pipes. That’s not a new thing but we’re seeing more of it in the higher-end heat sinks. Everybody seems to be chasing these microscopic differences now to compete with each other, which is a good thing. We’re starting to see this in the $50-$100 cooler range. 

The fans are polybutylene terephthalate and are glass-fiber reinforced. Rather than LCP, which is way more expensive, they’re going with the PBT solution and that helps to keep costs down. The downside is that the blade tips can’t be as close to the frame.

The cooler also has a top plate that features a 5-inch 720p screen on top. TRYX tells us it goes up to 400 nits of brightness. The display uses a pogo pin solution.  

The fan speeds on the cooler differ from each other. The inner fan goes up to 1,850 RPM whereas the outer fan is about 50 RPM lower. We imagine this was done for beat frequency control to reduce some of the annoying humming noise.

The cooler also has an offset mount that’s pretty cool. Down the middle of the fin stack, where it mounts to the IHS, there’s an offset for Intel or AM5. 

Tryx Stage

The company also had an update to its Panorama cooler, which it’s calling the Tryx “Stage.” It’s going to be $200 for a 360mm solution with ARGB fans. It seems to be geared for all of the figurine collectors out there. We think it pairs well with Yeston video cards and Cooler Master’s Stage case as it will allow you to put all of your waifus (or husbandus) into the computer. 

LUCA L70 (Updated)

The company updated its LUCA L70, which we initially called a disaster and criticized its strength and structure. Outwardly, it looks pretty much the same, but TRYX has made some changes to the design. 

Taking a look at the back of the case, the company has added an extra hole to help with 3 and 1/2 -inch drive support, where there was an issue with that previously. The updated case also moves the 2 and ½-inch holes up, which was done to allow you to access the SATA connectors. We previously complained about how you couldn’t get into the SATA connector once the drive is installed so that change is supposed to fix that issue. 

TRYX also revamped the bottom front button of the case, which we called out for feeling mushy previously. It feels better now. 

Another change the case makes is that it adds pogo pins for the front fans. This gets the cable off of the front panel, which is good.  

The company says it’s also strengthened one of the front corners of the case.

The updated LUCA L70 also uses some guide pins inside of the glass and adds a screw to the glass panel, which secures it better. 

Panorama WB (Water Block)

When we were at TRYX’s Computex booth, the company showed off its new water block, the Panorama WB, one of which was supposedly signed by Jensen Huang. It comes with a Panorama screen, which has a VRM fan inside. The water block is designed for open-loop coolers and not AIO ones. There’s also software that allows users to adjust colors. The Panorama WB will cost $240.

Arc Vision Case

The last thing we looked at from TRYX was the company’s new Arc Vision case. The interesting thing about the case is that it comes with an optional screen in the front corner, which would pair well with a Panorama cooler. The front screen is sunken in a bit, which TRYX tells us was done to protect it from unintentional scratches from users and in shipping. The version of the case with a screen is targeting $240 and TRYX tells us that the Arc Vision’s screen will be able to communicate with the Panorama cooler. The example the company talked about was having Mario enter a pipe in one screen and exiting it on the other screen. We’re guessing for legal reasons, TRYX didn’t show that at its Computex booth. 

The less expensive model of the case won’t come with the screen and will cost around $120. 

The cases are supposed to have 4x120mm fans included. Our understanding is that it will have 3 fans on the side and 1 in the rear. 

Another interesting thing about the case is that it has a scooped shroud, which should help boost the air up into the rest of the case but we’ll need to verify that in our testing. 

There’s a lightbar included in the case and 3 of the fans are reverse blade. The case has 4mm-thick glass.

We cover Phanteks’ new G370A budget case, the XT M3, and the Evolv X2 Matrix

The Highlights

• Phanteks’ new X2 Matrix case has 900 LEDs and is aiming to be around $200
• Phanteks’ G370A is a $60 case that includes 3x120mm fans
• The company has a new T30-140 fan that required 6 years of engineering to make

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

We visited Phanteks’ suite at Computex 2025 and the company showed off several cases along with a fan that took the company roughly 6 years to make.

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 21, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Camera, Video Editing

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Phanteks Matrix Cases

We’ve talked about Phanteks’ X2 case in the past but the company was showing off its new Matrix version, which has matrix LEDs. The X2 Matrix has 900 LEDs in a 10x90 layout. It’s supposed to be about $30 to $40 more expensive than the base X2, which means it should end up around $200.  

The interesting thing about the case is that the LEDs wrap around the chassis. In terms of communication, the LEDs connect to the motherboard via USB 2.0 and use SATA for power. This allows Phanteks to bypass a WinRing 0 type situation. 

Another Matrix case had 600 of them in a 10x60 LED configuration and is supposed to be about $120. 

Phanteks also has software that allows you to reconfigure what the LEDs display. When we got to the company’s suite, it had been programmed to say, “Gamers Nexus here,” which was cool to see. 

We also saw that the LEDs can also be used to highlight CPU temperature. 

Phanteks G370A

Phanteks also showed off its G370A case, which is a $60 case that includes 3x120mm fans in the front coupled with a mesh front that offers 38% hole porosity. The company tells us that manufacturing typically offers around 25% porosity.  

It has a glass side panel and the back side panel of the case is just steel and has no ventilation. 

Taking a look at the placement of the front fans, we asked Phanteks why they weren’t higher on the case so the bottom fan could get more exposure to the bottom power supply shroud area and the answer the company gave us was simply clearance for a 360mm radiator at the top. 

There’s not a lot of room for the air coming into the shroud. Some of it will go through the cable pass-through if it’s empty. 

The back of the case features a drive mount.

XTM3

The company also showed off a Micro ATX case called the XTM3. It comes with 3 fans and is $70. For its front panel, it has a unique punch out for its fans. 

The top panel is part standard ventilation but it does have one side that provides less airflow, which covers where the PSU would exhaust out of. The side panel does have punch-outs for the PSU, however. We don’t test power supplies, though that may change in the future. Power supplies can take a lot of thermal abuse, however, so we’re not super concerned here.  

The case should be shipping in the next month or so and is 39.5 liters, which includes the feet. We appreciate that as not a lot of companies will factor that in. 

There’s also a lot of cable management depth on the back and the case also supports BTF. In addition, there’s a panel that clamps down all of the power supply cables. 

T30 Fan

Phanteks’ T30 fan took the company 6 years to make and is a 140mm fan. The company is competing with Noctua in the high-end fan space, but is going for a grey theme instead of brown. 

Phanteks CTO Tenzin Rongen Interview

Finally, we interviewed Phanteks CTO Tenzin Rongen to discuss technical details behind the company’s long-developed fans. Make sure to check it out in our video.

Silverstone made the best case of Computex 2025 -- and it's actually shipping

The Highlights

• The FLP02 case is Silverstone's latest in its now growing lineup of retro-themed computer cases
• The FLP02 will be sold for around $220, if all things go as planned, or just under 200 EUR
• It includes modern features, like 360mm radiator support, but also mixes in old throwbacks

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

We visited Silverstone’s booth at Computex 2025 and walked away thinking we saw the best case of the show.

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 21, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Editing, Camera

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Silverstone FLP02

Our favorite case happens to be Silverstone’s retro-inspired, beige FLP02. Its old theme may look like an April Fool’s joke, but it’s definitely going into mass production. The case evokes the look of computers along the 286 through 486 era along with some of the early Pentium PCs. 

The case has a red power switch on the front along with a reset button, which actually follows the front lock. The turbo button, on the other hand, adjusts the fan speed. The number display indicates how fast the fans are going.

The FLP02 case is based on existing tooling. 

Internally, the case is set up pretty normal in some ways. The power supply shroud is present and on the bottom, and it’s punctured on the top for airflow. Back in the olden days, the PSU would be in the top. The FLP02 also has 5.25 hard drive cage support.

The switches on the front of the case, which represent floppy drives, are actually functional. Releasing the lock allows the slot cover to come out. 

Silverstone tells us the mechanism here that we saw at Computex is actually very difficult to manufacture so the company will probably create a stronger and more resilient mechanism with the company showing us a 3D printed mock-up of one.  

Internally, the back of the case has a 120mm fan, but it can fit a 140mm one. The top of the FLP02 can fit a 360mm radiator. The case also has a vertical GPU mount option, though it’s only for a 2-slot wide mount, which restricts what kind of card you can put in it. The FLP02 also has a vertical GPU support, which is obviously a more modern feature.   

For inspiration, Silverstone told us it Googled old computers and chose bits and pieces that it liked for the case’s design.  

Older computer cases wouldn’t have had a lot of ventilation on the front, but the FLP02 has some ventilation on the front bottom. Its top panel is also ventilated and has a dust filter. The top of the case also has options for multiple radiator sizes.   

The back side of the case has all of the modern cable management options so it ends up being a mix of design from both old and new. 

In terms of pricing, Silverstone says it will probably be $220, but that’s based on the current tariff situation. In the European market, the company is looking at around or less than 200 Euros. 

The case is also hiding some more modern features, like the front-panel USB ports, under covers to keep the immersion that the case is old. 

We plan on reviewing the case when it comes out. 

Silverstone LD05

Switching gears, Silverstone’s LD05 is a more modern fish-tank style ATX case that’s trying to hit a $100 price point, which is, again, dependent on the tariff situation. The company plans on providing 3x120mm ARGB fans. In terms of fan-mount locations, there are 2 on the side and a fan on the back. And there’s also space on the top for either 120mm or 140mm fans. The build we saw had 3x120mm ones.

The case has a heavily ventilated power supply shroud, which also has a hard-drive cage within it, which is also perforated. 

Speaking of perforations, the back side panel is also perforated. 

The backside has some cable management space. It’s pretty standard. The LD05 also has white cables that try to match the case itself. The color isn’t an exact match, however.  

Silverstone Alta T1

The Alta T1 is a case we saw at last year’s Computex and Silverstone tells us it will be over a grand. 

Silverstone Alta T2

We saw a version of the T2 case last year. In terms of pricing, the T2 will be about $1,000. It has an aluminum shell. When we pulled off its bottom side panel at Computex, it revealed 1 of 2 installed power supplies in the system we looked at. The other PSU is right behind it. The shroud area also has drive mounts in the middle and the front. The case itself has a ton of drive cage options. The T2 essentially acts like a home-server rendering farm of sorts. It’s got 11 slots for PCIe devices, making it one of the larger cases on the market for PCIe support.  

The case’s rail system allows you to basically mount whatever you want wherever you want.

The top front of the case has a canted angle, which has a plate that pulls off. There’s also another plate on the front bottom that pulls off and reveals the interior of the case. 

The T2 we saw also had 180mm fans installed in it. 

Silverstone Home Server Interview

We also interviewed Tony from Silverstone, where he walked us through some of the company’s home-server style cases. Make sure you check out that interview in our video.

We take a look at Corsair’s upcoming i600 pre-built PC, Air 5400 case, Frame 4000D prototype, and more

The Highlights

• Corsair’s i600 pre-built PC is a new revision on the company’s i500 and overhauls its GPU cooler and CPU radiator
• The Corsair Air 5400 is an airflow-targeted case that has air ducts on the top and bottom of its chassis
• Corsair has partnered with Singularity to develop the Frame 4000D prototype, which has an interesting power board that handles cable management

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

We visited Corsair’s suite at Computex 2025 and liked some of the stuff the company had to show. 

Editor's note: This was originally published on May 21, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Host

Steve Burke

Camera, Video Editing

Mike Gaglione
Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

Corsair Air 5400

Corsair will release its Air 5400, which is an airflow-targeted case. On the back side of the case is a giant hole, which couples with a front-mounted radiator that will allow the case to shove air straight out of it. This design allows it to focus air flow for the GPU entirely from its own set of fans at the bottom of the case. 

This is probably the most interesting case from Corsair we saw at Computex this year. It should be around $220, though that’s dependent on the everchanging tariff situation. 

Internally, the Air 5400 has a duct at the bottom where the case has 3x120mm fans (the entire case is actually set up to support all 120mm fans, which simplifies things). The duct is there to guide air into the GPU. Corsair claims that the case is getting about a 1-2 degree improvement with the duct in a like-for-like test. 

If you do end up with a front radiator, then a potential area that gets abandoned in terms of airflow might be around the VRM area and some of the board components like system memory.  

There are mounts for fans up on top of the case along with an additional duct. 

Looking at the back of the case, there are 2 holes on the back, which is surprising for a 120mm fan. The spacing doesn’t look like it would fit a 120mm fan, but Corsair’s plan is to include a bracket that would adapt a 120mm fan here and would actually cut out into the glass area on the back, which would make you lose about 40% of the fan. This should help but raises some questions about whether it may cause acoustic issues when you partially blast air into a glass wall. 

Speaking of glass, the Air 5400’s glass is laminated. A couple companies are doing this now. Corsair says this helps the glass stay more put together to prevent shattering. 

Looking at the back side panel, there’s a big acrylic sheet coupled with an area where air can escape. 

Opening up the back panel, there’s a huge amount of cable-management depth. You can also see that the motherboard tray is punctured all of the way through. This causes concerns around structural rigidity, but Corsair is using a .8mm thick steel, which helps a little bit here. The company has also strengthened the case’s top panel compared to Corsair’s 4000D case, which received negative feedback in that area. 

The Air 5400 is set to be priced at $220 with 3x120mm fans included. 

i600

Corsair is updating its i500 pre-built PC, which we hated, with its upcoming i600, and the company has improved it a lot. 

The i500’s GPU cooling solution had basically no contact with any of the power components. The i600, on the other hand, has massive overhauls here. The case itself has only slightly changed, but the changes made accommodate larger radiators. The block for the video card, including the power components, is totally different in a way that looks promising. 

The stuff that jumped out to us right away about the i600 is the fin stacks for the VRM, which is connected to a shared copper nickel-plated base plate for the GPU and memory. Everything is connected to the same base plate, which is connected to the liquid cooler. This means all of the heat gets dumped into the liquid cooler. There’s pros and cons to this design. The pro is that all of the other components get cooled better. The downside is that the GPU itself is sharing the heat dissipation capacity with all of the other components in the cooler. This means you typically see some increase in the GPU temperature as a result. There’s ups and downs to this approach. It doesn’t necessarily mean one solution is better than the other as long as it’s all cooled. 

The i600 has copper bars, which contact the MOSFETs. Otherwise, it’s very similar to the i500. 

Corsair has also modified its CPU cooler radiator, where the company has moved its tanks off to the side. The tubes are also running in a different direction. Corsair is also moving to 25mm thick fans, where previously they had the slimmer 15mm fans. That extra 10mm will help with pressure and performance a lot. 

We plan on doing a review of the PC as soon as we buy one.

Corsair Frame 4000D

We saw a prototype of Corsair’s Frame 4000D, where the company changed a few things. Corsair partnered with Singularity for its powerboard. It’s somewhat similar to Elmore’s BENCHLAB, with the exception of it not logging power. With the case, you basically run all of the power cables into the power board and then route them to their final locations. We count 10 fan headers here along with a bunch of RGB headers. There’s a lot of possibilities with this. Currently, it’s mostly being used as a cable-management tool, but you could, in theory, expand this to include more switches, like fan-control switches. We would really like to see current monitoring. It would make it more expensive but that could be a potentially useful direction to go in where you could monitor on the 12VHPWR, for instance, which would become a great marketing point for Corsair and would be very useful for end users. 

The front panel is also different as it has a die-cut edge now.  

The power supply setup is also different here with Corsair doing an acrylic wall for the PSU instead of steel. The challenge here is that plastic is an incredibly good insulator. This could raise some ESD (electrostatic discharge) concerns and may cause the PSU to lose some of the shielding that steel provides.
As a part of this design, Corsair has customized the caps and PCBs so that they get nice color matching. It looks pretty nice. 

3D Printing

Corsair was telling us how for its upcoming 4000D and its Frame series cases, it was getting into 3D printable panels and pieces. 

They showed us how one Corsair employee 3D printed a shroud-like duct, which takes air in through the bottom and shoves it up into where the pump and reservoir are in the image above. These 3D print files are available on Corsair’s account on Printables.  

Corsair 5000D

We didn’t care too much about it but Corsair also showed off its new 5000D that has a screen on it, which is a thing companies are doing now. 

They also had a 5000D case without the screen, which is a larger variant of the Frame 4000D case. Corsair says that it should be priced around $180, but that’s in flux with the tariffs situation.  

Corsair Open Concept

Corsair’s open concept at Computex is using some of the same Frame components, where the company is trying to make the Frame series modular and represents an open frame. 

There’s also an option for fan mounts as well. The company showed a gigantic radiator tower at the show, which is pretty cool to see.